“Hello? Standing right here,” I muttered. “I’m not interested in Landon. I’m dating Jensen.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
Beg to differ, was what I wanted to throw back at her. But, instead, I just turned back to Landon. “Help? Thoughts? Anything?”
“Landon!” Miranda whined.
“Just give me a minute, honey, okay?” He kissed her forehead as he crossed the threshold. “Just one minute.”
“I cannot believe this. You are so going to owe me for this.”
“Just one minute. Don’t you have a tennis lesson?” he asked.
“Don’t you dare try to get rid of me.”
“I’ll be right back,” he said. I could hear the exasperation in his voice as he shut the door in her face. But he looked livid when he turned around. “What the fuck are you doing here, Emery? Miranda is going to murder me in my sleep.”
“Jensen is gone and not returning my messages. What did you say to him last night?”
“I don’t know. I was pissed last night. Said some dumb things.”
“What dumb things?” I demanded.
“It was just me overreacting. I was going to talk to him this morning to try to clear the air, but when I woke up, he was gone.”
“What did you say?” I said, my voice low and deadly.
“I might have said you were too good for him.”
“Ugh!” I groaned. “Great. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but he’s gone. He went to New York. Why would he be in New York?”
Landon’s face dropped, and he was utterly silent. When he glanced away, that was when I knew it was bad.
“What? Tell me!” I said, pushing him.
“Nothing.”
“Landon! Is it Vanessa?”
“I know Vanessa has a place in New York, but that doesn’t mean he went to see her. He’s probably working. That’s all he normally does anyway.”
“Landon, why would he go see his ex-wife? Why would he do that?” I didn’t really want him to answer. I didn’t want to consider why Jensen would go see Vanessa in New York after being upset last night. He’d promised he’d never cheat on me, and I had to believe that. I had to latch on to that with everything I was, or I might fall apart entirely.
“It’s complicated.”
I winced. “Then, make it uncomplicated.”
“I can’t. You should just…talk to Jensen about this.”
“I can’t!” I cried in frustration. “He won’t return my messages.”
“I’m sorry, Emery. I can’t talk about it.”
“Can’t talk about what?”
“Nothing,” he said quickly. “Don’t jump to any conclusions. It’s not Vanessa. This is normal Jensen behavior. He’ll come back soon and then all will be back to normal.”
I shook my head in disbelief. I couldn’t believe what Landon was saying. Things were complicated? Things were always complicated.
But Jensen running away from his problems was not solving anything. Whether this had anything to do with Vanessa or not…Jensen was purposely ignoring me. And that alone infuriated me.
Twenty-Six
Emery
Jensen didn’t return a single message for five whole days.
By then, I’d thought of every worst-case scenario—from him being with his ex-wife to his death. My imagination was ripe, but it had no reprieve. I knew that I hadn’t done anything wrong. Not a damn thing. And, at this point, he was ignoring me on purpose. We definitely needed a good long talk, and maybe he needed a sharp kick in the ass.
By Christmas Eve, I was even agreeing to go to church with my mother of all people just to see if he showed up. That way, we could get all of this out in the open.
Kimber, Noah, and Lilyanne decided to stay in since Kimber was due soon, and the days had gotten harder. She wanted to conserve all of her energy for Christmas morning when she would get to see Lilyanne open her mound of presents from Santa.
So, I drove myself over to my mother’s place to pick her up.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” my mother said when she answered the door in a chic black dress.
“Ha, Mom. Never heard that one before.” It was our normal routine and slightly comforting, considering the week I’d had.
“Well, I was going to let Gary Lupton drive me to church, but I suppose you’re a worthy substitute.”
I cringed. “What about Harry Stevenson?”
“A girl has to have options, Emery.”
“Oh God, Mom!”
She cackled and walked out to my Forester. “Don’t be such a prude. I know you’re seeing Jensen Wright. Everyone knows that he isn’t a prude.”